Time for 64-bit longs?

[jbuck at epimass.UUCP]

DEC announced the SA482 disk subsystem, which stores 2.5 gigabytes
of data.  System Industries plans a drive that stores 4 G.  But
the maximum value a 32-bit signed value can store is about 2.1E9.
Without a data type longer than 32 bits, you can't deal with files
or partitions bigger than this.

Has anyone bit the bullet and gone to 64-bit longs?  I know Convex
has a monstrosity called a "long long" that's 64 bits; they leave
long as 32 bits, the same as int, apparently because it was too hard
to change all the Berkeley code that assumes long == int.  But it
seems the Vax architecture will soon require a 64-bit type at the
high end.

-- 
- Joe Buck 	{hplabs,ihnp4,sun,ames}!oliveb!epimass!jbuck	HASA (A,S)
  Entropic Processing, Inc., Cupertino, California